By Jillian Farrel -- February 24, 2010
In order to improve airport security, the first of 150 full-body scanners will be installed in Boston's Logan International Airport and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
The plan begins with the installation of three scanners at Logan. In the next two weeks, officials plan to install another machine in the Chicago airport.The rest of the machines are supposed to be installed by the end of June. Some $25 million from President Obama's 2009 stimulus money is funding these machines.
The scanners are able to see through clothing, thus allowing security officials to see objects intentionally hidden on the body.
After the security scare on Christmas, when a Nigerian man attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, Obama has called for more machines in addition to the 150.
The Nigerian man hid the explosives in his underwear, and, as a result, the materials were undetected as he went through screening while in Nigeria and Amsterdam.
Here's how the machines work: the machines only show the body's contours on a computer screen positioned from the security checkpoints. Faces and identities are never shown to the screener.
However, the American Civil Liberties Union has indicated that these machines are a "virtual strip search." The United States and European Union laws don't prohibit the use of full-body scanners; however, this has been a point of contention.
